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  • Essay / Diagnosis of Childhood Trauma - 1978

    Childhood Trauma and Later Diagnosis of Personality DisordersEllie PluttoKutztown University of PennsylvaniaAuthor's NoteEllie Plutto, Department of Psychology, Kutztown University of PennsylvaniaCorrespondence regarding this topical article should be addressed to Dr. James Jackson, Department of Psychology, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA 19530.E-mail: [email protected], the unthinkable has just happened, feelings of surprise and horror have suddenly interrupted the daily life you once lived. The behaviors typically observed in you quickly disappeared. Your actions now reflect a snapshot of an event that created visual and sensory information into a vivid and lasting memory. This is just a brief description of what a child who has suffered trauma may experience. Trauma occurs when a sudden external event dominates an individual's ability to cope and control the feelings produced by the event. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, specifically defines trauma as “the direct personal experience of an event involving actual or threatened death, serious injury, or threat to a person's physical integrity; or witnessing an event resulting in the death, injury or threat to the physical integrity of another person. (Criterion A1) The person's response to the event must involve intense fear, helplessness or horror in the children, the response must involve disorganized or agitated behavior. (Criterion A2). (p.463). It seems that trauma cannot be categorized and defined in a small statement. The outrageous amount of individual aspects as well as internal and external influences creates a slightly altered perception in each u...... middle of paper ......lance, which they use as a method of emotional protection. It is a typical thought process to associate treatment methods with a possible cure; I think it's easy to overlook the fact that even if a child seeks treatment for trauma, that doesn't mean it won't have an effect later in life. For those who survive childhood trauma, there appears to be an ongoing problem. , negative impact on later adult psychological functioning. Children who have been exposed to trauma are at increased risk of inappropriate brain development and adverse health effects. These children are vulnerable to extreme and abnormal stress patterns during critical periods of childhood brain development, which can alter, often permanently, the activity of key neuroregulatory systems and thus have profound and lasting neurobehavioral consequences. (Anda et al.., 2006).